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Thu Jan 10, 2013 at 08:59:12 AM CST

Barack Obama's 2012 Iowa campaign manager Brad Anderson confirmed yesterday that he plans to run against Secretary of State Matt Schultz in 2014. I hope there will be a competitive Democratic primary, because from where I'm sitting, Anderson looks like the wrong candidate for this race.

UPDATE: Added details from Anderson's formal announcement below, along with his campaign bio and a list of Democrats on his steering committee (including Senator Tom Harkin, former governors Tom Vilsack and Chet Culver, Representatives Bruce Braley and Dave Loebsack, and several former chairs of the Iowa Democratic Party). Looks like there will be no competitive primary.

Brad Anderson is a seasoned communications, research and government affairs professional with a strong track record of delivering results at the state and federal levels of government.

Anderson got his start doing research on John Edwards' successful 1998 run for United States Senate. After that campaign cycle, he moved to Washington, D.C. to help lead the Business and Ethics research operation at the Democratic National Committee, as well as lead the vice-presidential rapid response efforts during the 2000 campaign. In 2002, Brad served as research director for the successful re-election of U.S. Senator Tom Harkin. Anderson returned to Washington in 2004 to run research for Senator John Edwards' Vice Presidential campaign team.

In August 2006, Brad was named Iowa Governor Chet Culver's Communications Director and Chief Spokesman. Anderson joined Link Strategies in 2008 and went on to form LPCA with Jeff Link and Bonnie Campbell. Since the firm's inception, Brad has worked firsthand with President Barack Obama's campaign at the state and national levels. He has also given guest lectures on research and communications across the country, including Northwestern University, Loyola University and Iowa State University.

"I'm certainly looking at it. I think there are a lot of innovative things that we could do with that office that are not currently being done," Anderson says. "I think the current secretary of state has wasted a lot of money on fruitless DCI investigations." [...]

"Obviously preventing voter fraud is important to everyone. We all support that," Anderson says. "There are just different ways to do it."

Anderson, as the manager of Obama's Iowa campaign this past year, oversaw an effort that identified thousands of new Democratic voters in Iowa. He suggests as Iowa's chief election official he would focus on boosting voter turn-out.

"Quite frankly back in I think it was '92 we were at 80 percent turnout. You know, we're at 73 (percent) now," Anderson says. "I always believe we can do better and we should always focus on, you know, how do we get more people involved in the process, how do we get more people out there to vote as opposed to this idea that we constantly have to threaten penalties and felonies and things like that."

Since the early stages of his campaign against the highly competent Mike Mauro in 2010, Schultz has exaggerated the voter fraud problem in Iowa. Ignoring the views of county auditors, he pushed relentlessly for a voter ID law. Keep in mind that there are virtually no examples in Iowa or anywhere else of people impersonating another registered voter at a polling place on election day. Voter ID laws are a convenient way to suppress Democratic-leaning voter groups, who are less likely to have a driver's license, but they don't address problems such as voter registration fraud, double voting, or absentee ballot fraud. Even Schultz's full-time criminal investigator working to root out voter fraud hasn't come up with any cases that could have been prevented by a photo ID requirement at the polls. So far a few non-citizens and convicted felons have been charged, but all of them had valid photo ID in Iowa.

Bleeding Heartland has a longer update in progress about Schultz's efforts to combat voter fraud. For many weeks I have been seeking details on voter fraud complaints submitted to the Secretary of State's office in 2012, either through their website or their toll-free voter fraud hotline. I am guessing that almost none of the complaints concerned the type of fraud that could be prevented by photo ID requirements. Schultz testified before the U.S. Senate last month that more criminal charges will be forthcoming. He indicated at a Republican fundraising dinner in November that he will keep fighting the voter ID fight. Clearly he believes it's a political winner; on his twitter feed, Schultz has linked to various opinion polls showing people support photo ID requirements.

Iowa Democrats should nominate a candidate for secretary of state in the Mike Mauro mold. An experienced county auditor who has run elections can make a strong case against Schultz. Auditors understand the administrative work involved and are better-suited to remove the Secretary of State's office from the partisan political arena.

I don't think Anderson stacks up well against Schultz's record. He knows a ton about elections, but Republicans will have no trouble caricaturing him as a tool trying to stack the deck for Democratic candidates. It doesn't help that Link Strategies employed Zach Edwards, arrested in January 2012 for hacking into Schultz's e-mail. Jeff Link immediately fired and distanced himself from Edwards, who later pled guilty to a simple misdemeanor. Do you think that will stop Republicans from running tv ads about Anderson's buddy who committed a crime in order to smear Schultz?

"...We take our right to vote seriously. We help pick American presidents and we even invented the computer, but recently too many eligible voters have been intimidated, our state's technology has gone dormant and our tax dollars have been wasted on fruitless investigations. We can and must do better, which is why I've made the decision to run for Iowa Secretary of State."

The secretary of state is Iowa's top election official. Current Secretary of State Matt Schultz, a Republican, was first elected in 2010 and in the past year Schultz has led an effort to review voter registration records to check for ineligible voters, like felons or illegal immigrants. Anderson calls that "offensive" voter intimidation. Anderson suggests an already-existing electronic system that verifies a voter identity at the polls would be a cheaper option.

"A better way to prevent fraud than voter I.D. and doesn't disenfranchise a single voter," Anderson said, as he rapped the lectern with his knuckles to make his point.

During the 2012 election cycle, Brad Anderson was on the front line as President Barack Obama's Iowa State Director. Throughout the campaign Brad and his team increased voter turnout and organized volunteers and local officials across the state to protect eligible Iowans' right to vote. As a result Iowans voted early in record numbers and Iowa was one of just a handful of states to increase voter turnout from the historic levels set in 2008.

Beyond his long history working for campaigns and causes, both Anderson and his wife Lisa started small businesses in Iowa. Since 1997, Anderson has helped build campaigns dedicated to middle class job creation, tax fairness, and civil rights. No candidate has embodied these values more powerfully than U.S. Senator Tom Harkin, for whose 2002 campaign Anderson helped coordinate the message and media efforts.

After working on U.S. Senator John Edwards' 2004 Iowa caucus campaign, Brad joined Link Strategies, where he continues to advise campaigns and assist local communities on referenda to create jobs, improve wellness, make communities safer, and improve conservation and water quality.

From 2007 through 2008 Anderson served as Communications Director for Iowa Governor Chet Culver. In that time Culver signed into law several landmark pieces of legislation - including laws to increase the minimum wage, expand pre-school and establish same-day voting registration.

In 2010 Anderson and his business partner, Jeff Link, started a company called My Digital Manager - a simple, user-friendly online platform for searching video and digital assets.

Brad and his wife Lisa, along with their children Alice and Will, live in Des Moines with their dog Gracie Carmel. Lisa is a speech therapist, running her own small business, Small Talk Therapy. They attend Westminster Presbyterian Church where Brad has served as an elder since 2011.

Yeah, we had a good secretary of state in Mauro, someone who actually wanted to do the job, even the tedious parts, and not simply use it as a springboard for grander political ambitions. His four-year tenure was a nice break between Chet "celebration of voting" Culver and now Matt "show me your ID" Schultz.

Personally, I'm looking for a secretary of state candidate who promises to never call a press conference, who won't slap his or her massive portrait or name in Ambition Bold 48 point all over everything, who vows to seek a minimum of five terms and who states, openly, often, that he or she would make a monumentally lousy governor, senator or U.S. rep.

Who were the refs in the best-officiated football game you ever saw? Don't recall? Perfect. That's what I'm talking about.

There is no way he is the right candidate. Mauro was exactly what we want in that office, and I hope he runs again. He has a record to run on.

I think Secretary of State is an office that does not receive the attention it deserves, or the fundraising, but maybe after the latest wave of ALEC-inspired voter suppression moves in states across the country, the Dems will start supporting these races.

But a partisan hired gun from Link Strategies? I think that is the most ill-advised potential candidacy I have seen proposed yet. It even tops Culver running again.

Does Mauro get to keep his job with the Iowa Department of Labor if he were to run again and lose? He's got to put the interests of his family and his own retirement first. I know that isn't an ideal thing to say, but it is true.

Mauro is a superior candidate, but he's universally respected and does he really want to potentially lose some of that good will by running. Schultz will not take it easy on anyone.

I don't know the answer to your question. But if not Mauro, then another candidate with a background in managing (as opposed to trying to win) elections, or a lawyer with experience in elections or administration, and someone who can be seen as credible by Republicans as well as Democrats. Schultz has proved to be a partisan tool. How is it an improvement to run a candidate with nothing but Democratic campaigns in his work history? My tool versus your tool is what that will set up, and it will be a singularly unedifying dialogue.

Campaigns and Elections magazine just put Anderson on its list of 500 top "political influencers" across the country. Anderson didn't make the same magazine's list of Iowa influencers as recently as April 2011

fast ... It's not a secret that OFA has indicated that they are not interested in sharing their data from the 2012 election. So Anderson's stock skyrockets while your garden-variety Dem loses clout. He has access, so "wrong candidate" is open to debate at bare minimum.

OFA and the Democratic Party have never been quite one and the same. It's OFA that has successfully mobilized the "Obama coalition" while Dems have had mixed or poor results. It's not just 2010. Prior to Obama's candidacy, minority/youth turnout were low during the non-presidential cycle.

jdeeth mentions the election results (90% Obama) in PGC-MD, which he says makes JC look like West Jesus, Idaho. Not so fast. The same jurisdiction narrowly voted down marriage equality, which otherwise won statewide. The point is that "Obama voters" don't necessarily share your priorities & aren't necessarily lock-step allies. I expect some bubbles to burst as Obama's final term winds down.

Latino voters in particular voted to make a statement. I see that the politicians who garnered some press from the DOT DACA hearing are Republicans:

"Because they have been deferred, then these people are temporarily authorized to be here," Heaton said. "And that being the case, I believe that these people should be open to receiving a driver's license here in the state."

There's a bottom line regarding the treatment of Latinos -- no results from Dems will guarantee open minds when it comes to Republicans, especially Republicans who are making some sense.

he still wants to use a federal database to find alleged non-citizens who are registered to vote. In all likelihood most of these people are recently-naturalized citizens. Schultz wants to send them intimidating letters warning them that they might be committing a crime if they try to vote.

Are you saying a Dem challenger like Mike Mauro or Jeff Danielson will address this directly? I doubt it very much. I sense that there's bipartisan consensus on how to proceed on this specific issue. Tom Miller has blessed Schultz's procedural blueprint and Smithson is on board w/ the SOS, which is not insignificant. I see a lot of "zero fraud/zero intimidation" lipstick all over piggie. The end result will be ~80% verification of status by direct interaction with the feds w/ a smattering of unfortunates getting a letter inviting additional bureaucracy due to procedural shortcomings.

Voter ID laws are a convenient way to suppress Democratic-leaning voter groups, who are less likely to have a driver's license

Every two years this gets trotted out. If any Iowa Dem runs on this, Schultz will win. Esp with the roll-out of REAL-ID, any reasonable person will ask why on earth will Dems go to the mat to secure votes from the identity-less just to toss them back into ID-less pool -- until the next go-round. The Constitutional argument is a cop-out. Why can't concerned Democratic politicians who put so much energy into this fight every two years fashion a meaningful solution to get people IDs? Because if it's impossible to do, then we have no business imposing all kinds of restrictions on the everyday lives of these "Democratic-leaning voter groups."

I was not in favor of the idea of dropping government funds into food banks because this imposes an ID requirement. The reality is that most food banks have no or minimal ID checks, so they are the sole resource for those who are not eligible for government assistance due to status or lack of ID. It just seems to me that we can solve a lot of problems in one fell swoop by addressing the ID issue directly. I am actually not in favor of Voter ID requirements, but OTOH, possession of an ID is rapidly becoming a necessity for basic social and economic mobility, which, for most people, is more urgent, frankly.

Do you think that will stop Republicans from running tv ads about Anderson's buddy who committed a crime in order to smear Schultz?

The least surprising thing I've read in a while was today's headline by Kevin Hall for The Iowa Republican blog: "Dem With Ties to Electoral Shenanigans Wants to be State's Chief Vote-Counter."

I think an ad regarding the incident is guaranteed, no matter who is running. It was a dumb little stunt. It is true that Anderson has a stronger connection to original sin, but have you seen his Steering Committee? Anyone left over for the would-be challenger? I suspect that some of the validators would prefer a Mauro, but at the same time, politicians are always beta-like shape-shifters when it comes to the new alpha in town. Anderson's pitch is basically that he can produce the same successful coalition of 2012 for wins statewide. If that's the case, do Kevin Hall/TIR or some orange jumpsuit ad matter? Probably not. And yes, it's a big if, so a prospective challenger will have to expose flaws in this strategy during the primary. If nobody takes him on, it will tell you a lot about the state of the party & whether new brooms sweep clean.

I think Polk County Auditor Jamie Fitzgerald would make a great candidate for Secretary of State. Not only is he auditor of the largest county but he learned from the best as Mike Mauro's assistant before he was elected Secretary of State. Jamie also has that magic Fitzgerald last name that is probably worth a few votes by itself. I wouldn't give Brad Anderson any bonus points for having ties to OFA. OFA may have won here in 08 and 12 but the people running the IDP coordinated campaign in 2010 were all OFA people from 08 and 12 and their OFA magic didn't work in 2010. The only times OFA Iowa staff was successful here is when President Obama was on the top of the ticket.

the people running the IDP coordinated campaign in 2010 were all OFA people from 08 and 12 and their OFA magic didn't work in 2010. The only times OFA Iowa staff was successful here is when President Obama was on the top of the ticket.

but clearly a different candidate isn't going to be able to leverage existing infrastructure to mount a challenge unless Anderson drops out.

Schultz won't be easy to beat, regardless. County auditors may not like the hassles associated with his "reforms," but I doubt voters disapprove of his actions. He will present himself as a proactive, not partisan, incumbent who is fulfilling his 2010 platform. Via press conferences, IPTV etc, he's been given sufficient cover as an SOS working in a bipartisan fashion toward "zero fraud, zero intimidation." How HAVA funds are used is not a sizzling election issue. And who in state government, except Sen Courtney, is taking a strong public stand against Schultz's actions?

Aside from infrastructure, Anderson at least has some degree of separation from the Dem establishment. He is free to try and "fire up" Latino voters and other minority voters who may be sympathetic for statewide GE Dem advantage. If he fails, he's expendable.

I agree with all of the posters here who yearn for an SOS in the Mauro mold, but I don't see it happening because Dems have decided on a cynical strategy: stoke outrage in certain targeted demographics while maintaining a safe distance to simultaneously maintain a "law & order" profile in most other parts of the state.

OFA may have won here in 08 and 12 but the people running the IDP coordinated campaign in 2010 were all OFA people from 08 and 12 and their OFA magic didn't work in 2010. The only times OFA Iowa staff was successful here is when President Obama was on the top of the ticket.

No one can magically transform the midterm electorate into a presidential-year electorate.

Having Harkin at the top of the ticket will give Iowa Democrats one advantage they didn't have in 2010. The coordinated campaign in 2010 was underfunded, but Harkin will be in a position to spend millions if he has to. Branstad will outspend our gubernatorial nominee, but at least we won't be up against the double whammy of Branstad and Grassley.